This week’s Monday Morning Message from Wm. H. Danforth, founder of Ralston Purina:
What is the Monday Morning Message?
Along with the rest of the world, on New Year’s Day I made a lot of new resolutions. I felt good after making them—kind of satisfied with myself. But here it is the last of January and some of these grand resolutions are beginning to crack, and I’m looking for the reason. I think I have found it. You can’t create habits simply by resolving. Only indomitable persistence, trying and failing, and trying again and failing not so soon, will make those resolutions a reality.
I have a task to accomplish. I will eat moderately, play moderately, save moderately, but more than these, I will have a passion to overcome every influence that keeps me from being my best. I won’t be a flower that blooms only from January 1st January 15th. Not for a few days but all through the year I’ll make my life count.
Get out your resolutions, your aims, your quota, or whatever has been your goal. Then say, “I’ll make the flame of my resolve just as hot today, and in February, and throughout the year as on January 1st; and, by the Eternal, I’ll do it!”
Resolutions can fail us because, although we start with enthusiasm, that enthusiasm dims with the day-to-day reality of sticking with our resolutions.
One way to rekindle the excitement and commitment you felt when you made your resolutions is to look for ways to experience successes with them. Set intermediate goals that you can celebrate as you reach them. For example, instead of only focusing on your goal of losing 20 pounds, set an intermediate goal of losing five pounds. When you reach that, aim for the next five pounds.
Another is to have a goal partner. Your partner does not have to be working toward the same goals as you. By sharing your goals, holding each other accountable and enjoying your successes together, you will be inspired to continue working toward bigger and better goals.
